Bart listened to the morning briefing of the rangers this morning. The rangers here were all wolf shifters from the Shadow Mists Pack. Even the ‘hunting and rescue dogs’ were shifters and rangers. He was one of the first to admire how the scheduling was done for the rangers in situations like this. Making sure the wolves appeared only in their ‘dog’ form while others stayed in their human form. Really, it was genius because you could have access to all the full predators’ abilities along with the intelligence of the shifters. Paul was out at the base camp where the search was being managed from. There, he’d get the most recent information directly from the previous shift and they’d compare notes later. The meeting was just breaking up with he heard an unknown voice out in the main office area, which they used as a visitor welcome centre. The rangers didn’t have any women currently on their staff. Out of curiosity, Bart followed Ben White out of the back meet
Becky was finally being lulled into relaxing in the same room as these two large men. She needed to remember that they were more than men. Did she risk believing them fully? Could she dare believe what they said? What did she have as proof of what they said? She hated the broken little voice in the back of her head. She never knew if it was a real warning or fear from a trauma response. Through school and the divorce trail, her lawyer pushed her to use the services the school provided for mental health, and she’d learned so much about how she’d been groomed for the abuse she received. It wasn’t fair or right. Now she saw the signs everywhere and responded to it. Most of the time it was all in her head, but the fear was there, warning her she was treading on thin ice. “Alex is about to call last call. Why don’t we go down and have a drink there, while I deal with tonight’s sales and begin cleanup?” Rob said as the movie ended, they watched after
Jon watched his brother close the door behind him and Becky. That left him with Janie, and it was about time. All his instincts were telling him that their relationship needed to move on to the next stage. They were meant-to-be, and he was determined to make it happen.Janie moved quickly into the kitchen, and she began setting the kitchen to rights. To Jon’s surprise, this sight did something to him, and he wasn’t going to take the time to do an in-depth analysis of it. He knew what he wanted and now was the perfect time. Standing from the chair he sat in, Jon strode into the kitchen and cornered Janie playfully against the counter. He didn’t touch her, he just leaned toward her and took in her scent as he’d been dying to for so long. She stopped moving and sucked in her breath before she asked in a careful voice. “Jon? Uh… What are you doing?” “What I’ve been resisting for so long. You do smell like I remember.” He was so close now, Jon could feel
“Alex, don’t let anyone near my office. It’s up to you to close tonight.” Rob ushered Becky away and Alex nodded, wide-eyed at the change in her leader. “Right boss.” Alex turned from sweet country bartender to a general on a battlefield. Becky didn’t get to see much of it, as they headed for his office. Rob sat her in a chair and pulled up to face her. The office looked a lot better. Becky hadn’t expected much maybe a few mismatched chairs, and a dinged up filing cabinet and desk. But the office was neat and tasteful. The office even had a rug and an electric fireplace. She must have looked too long at the fireplace, because Rob commented on it. “It gets cold in here sometimes in the winter, so it’s there for warmth.” “Oh…” “Are you okay?” Becky nodded. She still shook over what happened. “What did he say?” “Oh, uh… He wanted me to tell him my name. When he put his hand on my knee, I think I froze. I’m sorry. I didn’t mea
Rob thought they had time to relax and get to know each other. Just the two of them alone in his office, away from the rush of closing, or his brother’s influence or her friend’s protectiveness. That wasn’t the case. They’d been in his office less than an hour when a fist started banging on the door and his cellphone rang. He picked up the call and barked into it. “What? This better be good.” “Sorry. But the general store is on fire, as is the hardware store. We called the fire department, and the police. But we have to get everyone out of the building just in case. The fire’s really close.” “Perfect timing. What about Old Man Jacobs?” “No one knows. He left here after last call and that’s the last time anyone’s seen him.” “The general storekeeper?” “Found behind his store messed up pretty bad. He’s headed for the hospital now.” “I’m going over to make sure Old Man Jacobs isn’t passed out in his apartment again.”
Rob knew this was foolish, but Old Man Jacobs was a staple personality in town. His store would be hard enough to lose, his death would destroy people deep down. But he wouldn’t go in blindly. That would be foolhardy, to say the least. No, he used his nose for this. Not an easy feat with this smoke. But a wolf’s sense of smell was far different that a human’s. Rob threw his clothes in some brush behind the hardware store. He needed to work quickly before the fire department got there. It was one group of emergency services that wolves hadn’t infiltrated in the area. The fire wasn’t burning as quickly as he’d expected. Whoever set this, didn’t use all that much accelerant, if any. That would be something obvious to even a human investigator. Rob didn’t stand about long. The back door was open, and he knew it led up to the apartment above. In his wolf form, the old hollow-core door of the apartment didn’t stand a chance. He just went into it shoulder first through it l
The street hummed with activity. The firemen were dealing with the affected buildings. Eventually, the ambulance left with Old Man Jacobs in it. He’d not recovered consciousness. Somehow, Jane Ann’s grandmother was there. Wandering around with a cat carrier. “Grammy, what are you doing with that cat carrier? You don’t have a cat.” “I do for now, but I can’t keep him. Well, I can, but not right now. Poor Ron will need help when he wakes up. He’s all alone in the world. I’m going to stay with him for a few days while he’s in the hospital. Then he can come back and live over my garage while he figures everything out.” “Grammy, who’s cat is this?” Jane Ann finally got a better look at the panic-stricken cat. “Grammy, why do you have Felix? Where’s Leanne?” Felix’s name got Becky’s full attention right then. “Oh, sweetie, Leanne handed Felix to me to make sure he’d be safe if the diner went up in smoke. I know it won’t, but she’s gone to help Ji
Bart watched the wolves, and their mates return to the Wolf’s Den bar with a cat. He’d enjoy thinking about the insanity that will ensure from that later. Now he needed to get his head in the game. The evidence collection was going well, but that’s because there wasn’t much to process. Jon claimed there was a scent trail from the people that broke into the vet clinic. He needed to study that to find a fresh start point where he could pick it up later after the human investigation cleared out of there. He wanted that point found before the trail got too mangled for him to identify it. Bart wanted to know if it led to one or more of the hunters or the rogues. For all the proof he had right now, the trail could lead to a bunch of hired goons from some land developer. Bart couldn’t see the lab doing this to wolf shifters knowingly, so either they didn’t know, or they now had a way to identify a wolf shifter from a human. That scared him. With his notebo